Asano: There are lots of different levels to the concept, but one of them is the strong will that ‘we must do better than the previous work.’ We payed attention to the fact that you liked the world and characters of the previous work, and with a setting several years after the earlier game, we decided to make a continuation that increased the information about Luxendarc. There are many parts that the staff haven’t settled on, so we will show these later on.

Yoshida: Because I retired from Square Enix at the end of September, I’ll be doing this work freelance. The reason I left the company is that I previously wanted to do both game development and drawing. But in recent years, the duties you have require more time if you’re in a position of responsibility in games. And after thinking that I wanted to be in an environment where I could challenge more things and not be tied to the frame of the company, I decided to leave. Asano called out to me about this title prior to my leave, and because this is a title that I personally want to do, I decided to be in charge. The scope of recent game development is big and the work is fragmented, so I wasn’t able to feel the response of decisively completing something. But continuing after the Final Fantasy III remake and Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, this series is one that I can feel a good sense of completion.

Asano: “Second” means this is the second game, and it’s the name we’ve given the system. I think this will also reach the subtitles.

We used AR movies in the last game, but this time they’ve been made into gyro-movies.

The world that Magnolia was in is one of the settings.

Magnolia is the main heroine. She plays a similar role Agnes played in the previous title, and is an ally who joins your journey.

New story elements include the Devil King and the moon, and in For the Sequel‘s secret movie, there is various information hidden. (See that here.)

Yoshida: Magnolia’s image swells from keywords like ‘moon people’ and ‘child who has returned to her country’ that came up during scenario meetings. There were ideas to make her rough, put her in space suit-like clothing and add rabbit ears, but in the end we decided to pull out a maturity that wasn’t in the main characters of the original. However, no matter what we did her head and body were raised, and through trial and error all the characters’ heads have been raised a little. (Editor’s Note: I think he’s referring to making them more proportionate.)

Asano: Istantal is a city from the first game. But since there was nothing to do there, players didn’t stop by.

More so than the previous game, the field is wider and the amount of information and the depth are higher.

Asano: As for a follow-up on the appearance of characters from the last game—the same Luxendarc from the last game is the setting, and so Agnes and Edea exist. Only Ringabel isn’t known.

The plan is to pass on the system of For the Sequel, but it’s possible that we might include changes after seeing the response.

Yoshida: From our experiences with the last game there are technical elevations, too. Even if we made the same thing in the same interval, we’d be able to show you something brushed up. All the varied and same illustrators and writers are drawing the characters and job designs for us, but there are ideas we’ve never been struck with that keep popping up, so we want you to look forward to that as well.

Asano: Just like the previous game, for the sake of Japanese RPG fans, we’re aiming for a new pillar of Square Enix, and as we develop we are consciously trying to surpass the previous game. But I think there will still be some time before we’re able to let you play. We’ll share new information bit by bit. As we want to enjoy the excitement as we develop, we want you to cheer us on.